"Parlant amb les pedres" "Hablando con las piedras" "Parlant amb les pedres" is a research project to the cultural landscape of the Calders region. This project has started during the summer of 2010 with a residence at CACIS. The exhibition exist out of two elements, a permanent installation in the forest of El Centre d'art i Sostenibilitat del Forn de Calc made during the residence period of 2010 and a temporarily indoor installation. Where does the title "Parlant amb les pedres" (Speaking with stones) comes from? In the Calders region there can be found a big diversity of stone-walls and buildings. The walls are often used in the agriculture to make terraces on the steep mountains for plantations. Beside the walls there can be found places where the stones are used in the constructions. The stone-walls and buildings (mainly used for storage of tools and food by the people that were working on the field) in the landscape, are made with stones that are piled up without using any mortar. The stones are chosen by their form and size to make these solid constructions. It takes a long time before you can work with the stones and understand how to use them. The people that were making these walls and constructions could take up a stones and saw immediately where they had to place them, they "could speak with the stones". Indoor and outdoor isntallation During the residence I studied the local plant and animal life, the historical background and the current use of the surrounding by speaking with locals, farmers, shepherds and historian. In the indoor exhibition space of CACIS there can be found a range of installations. In this installations I focus on the interaction with man and nature, not only physical but also mentally. In the outdoor installation the stones are used in their natural form but in the inside installations I want to investigate their inner meaning, the souls of the stones. Thereby I use beside the stones, plants that grow in between the stones and that have a strong connection with these stones. For example Rosemary, a plant that was already known by the Romans to activate the reminder (used invisible in the installation with the ear-forms of clay on stones), local found Boxwood, symbolic for his immortality (even in winter this plant remains green) and algae (representing together with the stones coagulated liquid = solidified thoughts) found in the small rivers that are eroded in the rocks. Not only natural found materials are used in this installations, the alienating use of man made forms in combination with natural forms question the relationship of man and nature. Working with clothes for example, like the pants (used while working on this exhibition) gives identity to the materials(stones) combined with it, the stones are no longer nonliving, they start to become part of the living environment. Stefan Cools July, 2011

viernes, 22 de julio de 2011

PROJECT: Thinking Utopia – Creating Sustainable Culture
OBJECTIVE
I wish to create an imaginary world which tempts our desire to be wedded to a vision of SUSTAINABLE LIVING. In this fantasy, humans have learned to coexist with their environment; where the organic and technological live in harmony and it is a place where people fall in love, for forever.
Human intervention is in collusion with the natural - where ‘REAL’ and ‘IMAGINARY’ stories are blurred-between the lenses of fictional and documentary filmmaking techniques. With these co-existing realities presented together I hope to create an inspiring story of what the future could be, should be, IS. As it follows, that through fantasy we learn to desire, it is my vision to present this world – so that we may call this new desire by it’s name – SURVIVAL - and summon it into existence.
The goal of my program is to instigate dialogue, inspiring awe, creating A HA moments with audiences in the public and private sectors of space and business. It is my hope that I reach a broad audience. It is my mission to plant a new vernacular of sustainability into their lifestyle.

TECHNIQUE
My program of work will consist of: a documentary, a series of happenings/performances in Asia, Europe, North America and Africa, a printed memoir that will behave as a road map to living sustainably, drawings, land art. This will culminate into a dramatic feature-length film.
The film is a love story about a girl who builds a micro power plant that runs on renewable energy. As I document the startup stages of building a renewable energy company, I will be travelling to many places around the world. During my stay in these cities, I will stage performances that investigate and experiment with architectural and mechanical structures. I will explore sustainable practices within these structures and present them in public spaces. I will film and document these performances in a written journal. To encourage inspiration and innovation, I will continuously brainstorm with drawing. I will also be creating my own set designs in these public spaces using local materials. This will also be documented and will be left behind as land art offerings to the community.
In this multi-disciplinary process, I will investigate, experiment and live sustainably. I will also hope to fall in love. This is an abstract of how one person can choose to change her lifestyle of excess. Ironically, this process involves the gross production of art objects and I will confront my own materialist desires and will critically question my own consumptive means to deliver this body of work. To do this, I will begin my research with a number of indicators to monitor my consumption.
I have begun this research of indicators with my new work in renewable energy technology. I currently work with a small company who is developing renewable energy solutions for mobile towers in Africa. I have attended conferences on climate change and adaptation policy, interviewed scientists, engineers and development workers in Africa. With my work, I have access to a wide arena of interested parties whose sole mission is to develop projects that fulfill Millennium Development Goals to alleviate poverty, address climate change and absolve old technology with creative renewable hybrids that work in collaboration with our environment, material needs and issues of waste. When aligning my intentions with these initiatives, I will develop a monitoring system that involves reporting to trusted teachers and my peers and getting verification through their personal commitments to act. When this happens, I know that I am going in the right direction with my work. When this doesn’t happen, I know that I need to shift.
I will employ a documentary approach, by technical means, as this is a form that is buttressed upon resourcefulness, commitment, loyalty and truth - but it will still be an imagined fabrication of what I would like to see the world be. There is a script and a story arch, however, the creation of the story will be done on location. By grabbing hold of the environment, looking at the truth and patterns of behavior – changing them THERE, THEN – I will be creating an illusion, a new reality in a cinematic image - an Ecstatic Truth. This is a model which Werner Herzog has pioneered in his vastly important contribution to the cinema.
It is my hope that a new language of SUSTAINABILITY will be developed as a product of a developed desire to want, long and yearn to be closer to our human responsibility to continue life on Earth through the future of our children. This will contribute to building a culture that counters our excessive consumption through an alternative model of how to live in co-existence with a future that anchors us in every moment, as we interact with our environment, protecting it in every gesture: with loyalty and love.
Mi programa de trabajo estará integrado por: un documental, una serie de acontecimientos / actuaciones en Asia, Europa, Norteamérica y África, una memoria impresa que se comportará como una hoja de ruta para vivir de manera sostenible, los dibujos, el arte de la tierra. Todo ello culminará en un espectacular largometraje.
La película es una historia de amor sobre una niña que construye una planta de energía micro que funciona con energía renovable. Como documento de las etapas de inicio de la construcción de una compañía de energía renovable, que va a viajar a muchos lugares alrededor del mundo. Durante mi estancia en estas ciudades, que tendrá como escenario las actuaciones que investigar y experimentar con estructuras arquitectónicas y mecánicas. Voy a explorar las prácticas sustentables dentro de estas estructuras y los presentan en los espacios públicos. Voy a cine y documentar estas actuaciones en un diario escrito. Para fomentar la inspiración y la innovación, que continuamente una lluvia de ideas con el dibujo. También voy a crear mi propio diseño de estos espacios públicos con materiales locales. Esto también se documentarán y se quedará atrás en ofertas de arte de la tierra a la comunidad.
En este proceso multidisciplinario, voy a investigar, experimentar y vivir de manera sostenible. Yo también espero que se enamoran. Éste es el resumen de cómo una persona puede optar por cambiar su estilo de vida de excesos. Irónicamente, este proceso implica la producción bruta de objetos de arte y voy a enfrentar mis deseos materialistas propia y crítica se pregunta mis propios medios de consumo para ofrecer este cuerpo de trabajo. Para hacer esto, voy a comenzar mi investigación con una serie de indicadores para el seguimiento de mi consumo. He empezado esta investigación de los indicadores con mi nuevo trabajo en tecnología de energía renovable. Actualmente trabajo con una pequeña empresa que está desarrollando soluciones de energía renovable para las torres de telefonía móvil en África. He asistido a conferencias sobre el cambio climático y las políticas de adaptación, los científicos entrevistados, los ingenieros y trabajadores de desarrollo en África. Con mi trabajo, tengo acceso a un amplio campo de las partes interesadas, cuya única misión es desarrollar proyectos que cumplan los Objetivos de Desarrollo del Milenio para reducir la pobreza, frente al cambio climático y absolver a la vieja tecnología con creatividad híbridos renovables que trabajan en colaboración con nuestro medio ambiente, material necesidades y los problemas de los residuos. Al alinear mis intenciones con estas iniciativas, que se desarrollará un sistema de monitoreo que consiste en informar a los maestros de confianza y mis compañeros y hacer la verificación a través de su compromiso personal de actuar. Cuando esto sucede, sé que voy en la dirección correcta con mi trabajo. Cuando esto no sucede, sé que necesito cambiar.Es mi esperanza que un nuevo lenguaje de la sostenibilidad será desarrollada como un producto de un deseo de querer desarrollar, a largo y anhelan estar más cerca de nuestra responsabilidad humana para continuar la vida en la Tierra a través del futuro de nuestros hijos. Esto contribuirá a la construcción de una cultura que nuestros contadores de consumo excesivo a través de un modelo alternativo de cómo vivir en coexistencia con un futuro que nos ancla en cada momento, como nos relacionamos con nuestro medio ambiente, la protección que en cada gesto: con lealtad y el amor.
Irene Cortes
irene.cortes@gmail.com